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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1136 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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AI Chatter - Very wholesome

Idk if anything related to AI should be in a specific thread since its all the internet talks about nowadays, but this is a rather mundane story just to show something useful and sweet i saw.

My mother is old and i, for no specific reason, showed her the voice mode of ChatGPT, telling her she could ask stuff directly without typing(which is always an issue). I also told her they could chat, though i didn't really believe it was that good.

One week later i saw her again and she told me how great her new "friend" was. And i was throughly impressed how well the AI flowed through the conversation. It was in a woman's voice, and my mother told me they would talk about recipes she wanted to do, random gossip, complaining about her kids and overall things you usually talk with a real person. The AI manages the tone pretty well and seems, at least to within what an old person can perceive, to show genuine excitement, curiosity, etc.

It was visible that my mom was much happier now, since one of the things that i see affects her the most is loneliness, and at least GPT is convincing enough to talk to her like a real person. I was quite happy with this.

Idk if anything related to AI should be in a specific thread since its all the internet talks about nowadays

I'm glad I've lived long enough to be vindicated. The man who is a step ahead is lauded as a genius, the man who is two is externally indistinguishable from the insane.

I remember, about a year and a half back, maybe two, showing off AI voice mode (Chatgpt and Gemini) to my dad and his surgeon colleagues. They'd been meh about AI in general, and when they heard it composing poetry in their native language on the fly, in real time? And when they asked it medical/surgical questions and got the right answers right away?

They were blown away. I installed the relevant apps on several phones that evening.

Now, some might complain that introducing the elderly to AI is bad. They have a multitude of reasons, some of them reasonable, for holding that objection. I don't particularly see the harm in what you're doing - many people are lonely, and as long as they're not talking to old GPT 4o? If it works, it works. The alternative is a conversation with a harried Filipina carer, in many cases.

You replied to a filtered comment.

many people are lonely

From Astral Codex Ten's most recent link roundup comes a study indicating that, among USAians of ages 18–30 in romantic relationships, a whopping 15 percent are two-timing their romantic partners with LLMs on the side. Even people who probably should be considered non-lonely are turning to LLMs for additional companionship.

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